Giovanni Stefani:
Amante felice
Alama mia
O voi ch’intorno al lagrimoso canto
Partenza

Girolamo Kapsberger:
Rosa Bianca
Felici gl’animi

Giovanni Paolo Foscarni:
Aria di Fiorenza
Ciacona in C

Marcantonio Aldigiatti de Cesena:
Deh volgetemi il guardo

Flaminio Corradi:
Odi Euterpe

Francesco Cobetta:
Passacaglia in A
Passacaglia in B

Girolamo Montesardo:
Anima dove sei
La Grave

Tarquinio Merula:
Quando io volsi

Bartolomeo Barbarino da Fabrian:
Bella e la Donna mia

Gaspar Sanz:
Passacaglia in D

This new programme from Private Musicke, with the young Spanish soprano Raquel Andueza, is dedicated to the light Italian delights of the early Baroque period. Everything centres on love in the labyrinth of hope, sorrow, optimism, disappointment and joy. This music is a small selection of the utterly incalculable amount of printed music that appeared between 1610 and 1640. At the sonic centre is the "chitarra espanola" which was explicitly conceived as the accompanying instrument for all the pieces; during these years, it began its soaring flight which has continued up to the present day. One can hear arias, villanelles and canzonas by betterknown composers such as Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger and Tarquinio Merula.

Girolamo Montesardo, Giovanni Stefani, Flaminio Corradi and certain other forgotten authors, however, are now rubbing their eyes after several hundred years of sleep, glancing around themselves in bewilderment: not much has changed. A song is still a song and nothing seems more suitable for giving expression to the overflowing heart.

If there were a hit parade from this period, several of the songs on this programme would surely be amongst the top ten.